The Cat and the Wizard
by soultaker78
Summary: Toralei goes on a trip with her parents to Japan but things go south when she's targeted by a phantom with a connection to her past. Fortunately, she also runs into a certain ring-bearing wizard.
1. Chapter 1

Author's notes: a few things before we get to the story. First off, this is a prequel to a Monster High story I did called Defection. As for Kamen Rider continuity, all Showa era shows and neo-heisei era shows happened on the same world as Monster High, but not the others. As for this takes place in Wizard's episode count, this takes place sometime in the mid-twenties. Also, everyone is speaking Japanese and let's assume that Toralei is bilingual.

….

Toralei and her parents, Rio and Komodoyoko Shishimura were on a plane that was heading to Japan. They wanted Toralei to visit her ancestral homeland at least once her life and Toralei reluctantly agreed to it. She had never wanted to go to Japan before because her uncle had been killed by a group of normies dressed as the Super Sentai team Choushinsei Flashman almost 20 years ago. To make matters worse, one of the killers was never caught.

"If this turns out anything like that trip to Syria, I am going to be so pissed off," Toralei said to her step-dad, Rio. He was a muscular, male werecat that had the head and mane of a lion with yellow fur and orange mane.

"If you're worried about what happened to your uncle," Rio started, "don't be. Japan has become much safer for monsters since the 90's. And no car bombs have ever gone off in the country."

"Now we're talking," Toralei said with a smile as she rubbed her shrapnel wounds. "Still, you better be right about this country having the best damn seafood in the world."

"I am," Rio said.

…

Several hours later, they had landed dropped, their stuff off at the hotel and started fright seeing around the monster side of Tokyo. While Toralei had had her reservations about this trip but she was enjoying herself so far. Tokyo was a vibrant city that she was glad she was seeing up close. And after having some delicious octopus dumplings, it turned out that her step-dad was absolutely right about the quality of Japan's seafood.

 _Of course when your country is an island, you pretty much have to make the most of what you've got to work with,_ Toralei thought. Unbeknownst to her, she was being watched.

Medusa sometimes ventured into the monster side of Tokyo to look for any monsters that could be potential gates. She wore a muslim shawl around her head to conceal her snake hair. With that in place, she could easily blend in among the monsters in her Phantom form. If any of the monsters there thought it was strange that a muslim reptile monster was in Japan, where both those things were uncommon, they kept it to themselves.

 _They probably don't notice or think I'm someone who likes to cosplay in public,_ Medusa thought. _Japanese monster society sets the bar pretty high for strangeness,_ to herself as she sensed a gate among a group three monsters: an adult lizard woman, an adult male werecat and a teenaged female werecat. Medusa got closer to them and was able to determine that the teenaged female was the gate. _I knew these trips of mine would pay off eventually._

Medusa found an isolated spot between the human and monster sides of Tokyo to turn into her human form and ditch the shawl. She had just the Phantom in mind to after the teenaged werecat.

She caught a cab to Akihabara, the world's nerdiest shopping district. She searched around a bit and found who she was looking for. Her target was a pudgy, little-aged Japanese man with glasses wearing a T-shirt of Space Sheriff Gavan and carrying two large bags of manga. She walked up to him and motioned for them to take their business into a nearby alley.

"What's going on, Medusa?" the man asked.

"I have a mission for you, Stymphalian," Medusa said. "It involves going over to the monster side of Tokyo and driving a female, teenaged werecat into despair. She's traveling with two adult monsters, probably her parents. Attacking or killing one or both of them should do it."

"Are you telling me that I get to bring a new Phantom into existence and kill some monsters?" Stymphalian asked with barely contained glee. Medusa nodded yes and he dropped his bags of manga. "Best day ever!" Stymphalian shouted with his arms raised in jubilation.

"Just be careful with the gate herself," Medusa said warningly. "Phoenix killed at least one gate that I know of because he was so enthusiastic with the brute force approach. And now he's in the sun, in a constant state of being blown up and reborn over and over again."

"But that happened because he fought that wizard guy," Stymphalian said in confusion. "Those two things aren't really connec…." Stymphalian stopped when he saw the glare Medusa was giving him. "I mean, I'm all over it," he said nervously as he grabbed his manga and left.

 _It was worth a shot,_ Medusa thought in regards to her failed attempt to use Phoenix's fate as cautionary tale to other phantoms about the dangers of screwing up. _On the plus side, I can get out of here before I catch Otaku,_ Medusa thought, eager to no longer spend time in Akihabara.

…

Toralei and her parents had seen a few of the sites around Tokyo and were about visit a Shinto shrine when a humanoid creature dropped out of the sky. The creature had a yellow body, a beak on its face, talons for hands and large wings coming from its back. The creature's beak talons and feathers on its wings appeared to be made of bronze.

"Can I help you with something," Rio asked.

"Yes," Stymphalian said. "You can drop dead: that will help a great deal." Stymphalian then slapped Rio aside with the back of one of his talons and looked at Toralei. "You seem familiar."

Rio then pulled a knife from his jacket that had a blade that was 8 inches long blade 1 inch wide. He slashed at Stymphalian, but that only made a small spark emit. Stymphalian at Rio with its right Talon, but the male werecat avoided the blow. Rio then tried slashing at Stymphalian's head but Stymphalian moved its head so that the knife hit its beak and got embedded there.

Stymphalian shoved Rio to the side and sent him to the ground. Stymphalian could easily kill the lion werecat, but he wanted to drag this out to prolong the gate's suffering and increase the odds of a new phantom gaining physical form. He then took another look at Toralei.

"Now I know why you look familiar," Stymphalian said as he assumed his human form. "Me and four friends of mine killed a male werecat that looked like you."

"You're Blue Flash," Toralei said in short breath, struggling to come to grips with how a bird creature who just admitted to killing her uncle almost 20 years ago and was trying to kill her now.

"Yes," Stymphalian said as he reverted to his phantom form. "Or rather, my gate was."

"Gate?" Komodoyoko asked.

"I could explain things, but you'll understand when I kill the lizard," Stymphalian said as he began walking towards them. He stopped when something like four gunshots went off and several sparks came from his body, hurting him.

Komodoyoko and Toralei turned to where the gunshots came from and saw a man standing next a weird looking motorcycle, wearing a motorcycle helmet and holding a gun-like weapon with a smoking barrel. He took off the helmet, revealing himself to be a young, Japanese man with brown hair.

"You're not killing anyone," the man said as he slid a silver 'faceplate' over a large, ring on his left hand. "Henshin!" He called out as he placed his left hand over a buckle of a left hand on his large, metal belt.

 **Flame, Please,** an exuberant male voice called from the belt. The man held his hand to his left and a red circle with strange symbols appeared in front of it. **Hi-Hi, Hi-Hi-Hi.**

The circle traveled over the man and he was now wearing a black costume that included what looked like the coat tails of a trench coat and small, silver shoulder pads. There were also red stones on the face and chest, silver lines dividing the chest into six sections and making two 'eyes' on the face.

"It's showtime," Wizard said.


	2. Chapter 2

Wizard slid the handle of his gun back, causing a small blade to pop out of the front. He charged at Stymphalian who flew up and backwards. Stymphalian then brought his wings together in front of him and flapped them open, sending forth a barrage of razor-sharp feathers. Wizard dodged and knocked a few away with his sword but more than five feathers hit him, causing spark damage.

Stymphalian flew towards Wizard, who rolled out of the way. Wizard then took a ring from the loop on his hip, replaced it with the one on his left hand and placed over the hand on his belt.

 **Hurricane, Dragon. Byu-Byu, Byu-Byu-Byu-Byu.**

Wizard raised his hand above his head as a green circle and floated down over him, followed by a tornado of green wind, changing his outfit. The once black parts of his costume and coat tails were now lime green, there were green, triangular jewels next to his shoulders and a small, green jewel on his helmet.

He took a ring from the loop on his belt and put it on his right hand. He pressed down a slider next to his buckle that changed it to a right hand and placed his right hand over it.

 **Very nice. Special, fabulous.**

A pair of dragon-like wings appeared on Wizard's back. He lifted off the ground and flew towards Stymphalian, who flew towards Wizards's left side (opposite his sword arm) and slashed at Wizard while flying past. Wizard turned around, flew at Stymphalian and delivered a sword strike. Stymphalian countered with a strike to Wizard's torso then fell down and grabbed Wizard's legs. Stymphalian then gave Wizard a downward tug that sent him falling toward the ground while he flew up.

Wizard stopped himself from falling and then pursued Stymphalian, who then gave a flap of his wings that propelled him towards Wizard and hit him with his claw-like foot. Wizard fell several feet to the ground and was forced back to his default flame style.

Stymphalian made another dive that Wizard rolled away from as he put another ring on his right hand and scanned it on his buckle.

 **Bind, Please**

As Stymphalian was still flying past, chains came out of four small circle below him. Two of the chains wrapped themselves around his left leg, causing Stymphalian to stop in midair. He swung his left wing and used the sharp feathers on the end to cut the chains off as Wizard put on another ring.

 **Big, please**

While Stymphalian was dealing with the chains, Wizard had put a different ring and scanned it. A green magic circle appeared in front of him and he put his arm though it. His arm enlarged and stretched towards Sytmphalian, put his massive hand over Stymphalian and slammed the bird-thing into the ground. Wizard's arm then lifted from Stymphalian, retracted back to Wizard and then shrunk back to its original size.

"Ouch," Stymphalian said as he got up. He decided that Wizard's unexpected arrival wasn't worth dealing with right now, so he flew away.

Wizard then turned back to normal, his armor coming off of him in jewel-shaped things of light before vanishing.

"Well I'll be damned," Rio said as he walked towards him. "I have friends in this country who've told me that Kamen Riders had been showing up again in recent years, but I didn't think I'd actually be saved by one. What's your name young man?"

"Haruto Soma," he said.

"Rio Shishimura. Pleased to meet you," Rio said as he held out his hand and Haruto shook it. Rio then turned to face Toralei and Komodoyoko.

"How can you be so happy around that guy?" Toralei yelled at Rio.

"Because he just saved you and your mother from that," Rio paused as he tried to decide what he would say next, "whatever the hell it was."

"It was a phantom," Haruto said. "A magical being that wanted to drive you," he pointed at Toralei, "into despair so that another of its kind would be born at the cost of your life."

"I see," Toralei said as she started thinking about things. "Well thank you for your help but we don't need you anymore."

"Actually, you do," Haruto said. "That phantom is going to come at you again and I need to be near you when he does."

"What?" Toralei asked in shock. "I don't want you hanging around on us."

"You are being very ungrateful to someone who saved your life young lady," Rio said with a very stern tone.

"Because of what people like him did that lead to my uncle's death," Toralei said. "When the first riders started appearing in the early 70's, it was the main inspiration for the Super Sentai series that started a few years later. It's depiction of normie on monster violence lead to several real-life monsters being lynched by Sentai fanboys, including my uncle."

There was an awkward pause as Haruto thought of how he would attempt to diffuse the werecat's anger. While he was thinking, Rio spoke up in his defense.

"I'm sure this young man had nothing to do with any of that," he said. "He must have been less than five when your uncle was killed and actually kept a monster from being killed just now."

"Look," Haruto said, "I'm very sorry about what happened to your uncle. I actually lost my parents at a young age so I know how much it hurts to lose people. But the only thing I care about right now is keeping that phantom away from you."

"And how are you going to do that?" Toralei asked. "We're staying in the monster side of Tokyo and you can't stay here without being chased out."

"I think I can work around that," Haruto said as he over to his motorcycle and put on his helmet and riding gloves. While covered head to toe, it was impossible to tell if he was a human or a monster with human proportions if one didn't already know.

"This could work," Komodoyoko said then turned to face Toralei. "And remind me that we need to have a serious talk about displaying gratitude."

"Fine," said Toralei said begrudgingly and faced Haruto. "You can stay near us and protect me from that thing."

"I'm going to need a friend to join me as well," Haruto said.

"Okay," Toralei said as he put her hand on her forehead. _I suppose dealing with another normie won't be that bad if it keeps me alive._

"Great," Haruto sais as he took off his helmet, took out his cellphone and dialed. "Nitoh? It's Haruto. I need your help protecting another gate. There is a slight problem this time: the gate is a monster and I need you to come to the monster side of Tokyo."

There was a pause as Nitoh spoke on the other end.

"No, this is not a joke," Haruto explained. "Look, get the spare motorcycle helmet I have at the antique shop. Put it on along with a pair of gloves to protect yourself from being recognized as a human. I'll text you where we are later."

….

Stymphalian had flown away to meet up with Medusa at an abandoned restaurant the phantoms used as a meeting place. The phantoms were in their human forms and by themselves.

"Judging by how you're alone," Medusa began, "I take it that you were unsuccessful. You better have a good reason for this."

"Does running into interference from a certain ring-bearing wizard count?" Stymphalian asked.

"Damn it," Medusa said. "Fortunately for you, that counts as a good reason. I was really hoping that going after a monster gate would ensure that we wouldn't have to deal with him."

"Me too," Stymphalian said. "But I'm not going to let this detour me. The gate we're after is related a werecat my gate killed about twenty years ago. I'll make another pass at her but I'd like some ghouls to accompany me."

"All right," Medusa said and then began glaring at him. "But you better come back with a new phantom or not at all."

"Deal," Stymphalian said with a sinister smile.

….

Two hours later, Toralei, her parents and Haruto were next to a pier. They had seen a few more sights around monster Tokyo and were now looking at sea. Toralei motioned for Haruto to walk up to her and he did.

"I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier," Toralei said. "In addition to the usual monster/normie bad blood, I also have that stuff about my uncle. That's why I was mad you after you saved my life, even though with you being so young you didn't have anything to do with the Super Sentai series being made or the actions of your predecessors."

"You're talking about the early Kamen Riders, aren't you?" Haruto asked and Toralei nodded yes. "I'm not even sure that I am a Kamen Rider. The only other time I've been called a Kamen Rider was by another one I briefly met, but he only called me that because I seemed like one to him."

"You certainly look like a Kamen Rider, from what I know of them," Rio said. "How sure are you that you aren't one?"

"I've never really thought of that before," Haruto said.

"And thanks for saving me," Toralei said, "and for not giving up on me after I gave you enough reason to."

"You're welcome," Haruto said. "You're also lucky that I'm more concerned with protecting gates than earning their gratitude."

"What exactly is a gate?" Toralei asked, curious because she never got an explanation from Stymphalian.

"Gates are special people," Haruto began, "that, when driven into despair, will give birth to new phantoms. The phantom will devour them from within and gain the gate's form, memories and parts of their personality."

"Damn," Toralei said, gaining a new appreciation for how serious the situation was. "It sounds like I'd be better off if that thing just wanted to kill me."

"You would be," Haruto said. "When I was almost devoured by a phantom, it felt like I was being stabbed in the soul."

"You poor man," Komodoyoko said as she put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Wait a second," Rio spoke up. "You're also a gate?"

"Yes," Haruto answered. "The only reason I have magic is because when I was being driven into despair, my hope won out and kept the dragon phantom from consuming me. Now I use its power to protect other gates."

"Talk about turning a frown upside down," Toralei said with a hint of admiration. Despite her issues with Normies and her initial bitchiness towards him, she was starting to like Haruto.

Haruto then got a text message on his phone and read it. "My friend is here," he said as he turned around and pointed at a man with a motorcycle helmet and gloves on. He motioned for the other man to join them and he did. "This is Kousoke Nitoh."

"How is he going to help us?" Toralei asked.

"Like me, he's also a possibly/possibly not Kamen Rider," Haruto explained.

"And you don't have a problem with monsters?" Komodoyoko asked.

"Not particularly," Kousoke replied. "Besides, I've got my own monster to deal with," he said as he put his hand over his heart.

"He also has magic from a dormant phantom inside him," Haruto explained. "Except his is the Chimera phantom and unlike me, Nitoh has to feed his mana from destroyed phantoms so it doesn't consume him."

"Mana?" Toralei asked.

"Think of it as the fuel for magic," Kousoke said.

A small, red hawk-like thing came from above and landed on Haruto's shoulder. This was the Garuda plasmonter, a magical construct of Haruto's that he used as a scout.

"He's here," Haruto said as he turned away from the sea. Everyone else turned to look where he was facing and saw Stymphalian flying towards them.


	3. Chapter 3

Kousoke smiled as he took off his helmet and gloves and placed a ring on his right hand over his belt buckle.

 **Driver on**

A belt with a buckle that looked like two closed metal doors appeared around his waist.

"I've got this," Kousoke said and sarted waving his arm around. "Henshin," he said (drawing out the syllables) and put the ring into a slot on the right side of the buckle and turned it.

 **Set. Open.**

The metal doors of the buckle opened, revealing a golden lion face.

 **L-I-O-N. Lion.**

A yellow magic circle came out from the buckle, then floated towards and over Kousoke, turning him into the ancient wizard, Beast. It was mostly black except for a yellow shoulder pad with a lion's face over the left shoulder and a yellow helmet with big, green eyes. Beast then replaced the ring on his right hand with a new one, put it in the buckle's slot and turned it.

 **Go Falco. F-F-F-Falco.**

An orange magic circle appeared next to Beast's right arm and materialized a mantle of an orange falcon over his right shoulder that had a short, orange cape. Beast put his clenched right hand next to his buckle and pulled out a sword that had a thin shaft. He jumped off the ground and floated towards Stymphalian.

"That's not going to work," Haruto warned him to no avail.

Beast tried to slash the bird phantom, but Stymphalian flew backwards from him and unleashed a barrage of razor-sharp feathers from his wings. The projectiles hit beast, causing significant spark damage. Stymphalian followed through with a kick from above that sent Beast to the ground and making his Falco mantle disappear. He then landed.

"You have no idea how much I'm going to enjoy this," Stymphalian said and then let out a cry as fifteen ghouls appeared around him. The ghouls were grey humanoids with short, red horns on their heads wielding spears. They were foot soldiers for the phantoms. Haruto slid the silver faceplate over his ring.

"Henshin," he said as he placed the ring over his buckle.

 **Flame, Please. Hi-Hi, Hi-Hi-Hi.**

The red magic circle floated over Haruto and transformed him into Wizard Flame style. He put a ring from his belt on his left hand, changed the buckle so that it was also a left hand and then put the two hands next to each other.

 **Connect, Please.**

A small magic circle appeared to next Wizard's right side. He put his right hand into it and pulled out the Wizard swordgun. He shot two oncoming ghouls, turned his weapon into sword mode and parried a strike from another ghoul. Ten of the ghouls went around him and headed towards Toralei and her parents, as per instructions Stymphalian had given them ahead of time. Beast got back and went to help them.

Rio pulled out his knife, sidestepped a ghoul and struck it, hurting it a great deal. He did it to another ghoul. Toralei evaded a ghoul's thrust, grabbed the lance and kicked the ghoul, making him lose his weapon. Komodoyoko swept her tail and caused a ghoul to fall to fall to the ground. While this was happening, Beast was keeping other ghouls occupied by striking him with his sword.

Wizard was fighting other ghouls while Stymphalian flew into the air and made a diving strike at Wizard. He hit Wizard and made him fall to the ground. Wizard evaded a strike from the last remaing ghoul then got to his feet and defeated it with a slash. Wizard then put a new ring on his right hand, changed his buckle to a right hand and placed his hand over the buckle.

 **Land, Dragon: Dan Den Don Zu Dogan, Dan Den Dogon.**

A yellow magic circle appeared in front of Wizard and floated over him, followed by a small tornado of dirt. He was now in Land Dragon style style, which was styled like Hurricane Dragon style but yellow and with square jewels next to the shoulders.

Stymphalian was making another charge at Wizard while he put a new ring on his left hand and changed his buckle to a left hand. He placed his hand over the buckle as Stymphalian neared.

 **Very nice. Gravity, fabulous.**

Wizard held out his hand and a yellow magic circle appeared above Stymphalian that slammed him into the ground by drastically increasing his weight. Despite his increased weight, Stymphalian was able to flap one of his wings and send several razor feathers at Wizard, which him in the torso and broke his concentration, cancelling out the Gravity spell.

Stymphalian cried out and summoned six more ghouls that he was holding in reserve. They charged Wizard while his got up and flew towards Toralei and Komodoyoko, who were fighting off three ghouls.

Stymphalian flew at Komodoyoko and tackled her to the ground. He then walked over to the downed lizard woman, ordered the two ghouls around them to keep Rio and Beast busy, placed one of his clawed feet around her throat and began squeezing.

No, not her too, Toralei thought as she looked at her mother being slowly choked to death. Between losing her father and the uncle she never met, the thought of seeing her mother die by some evil thing that had the same memories and drives as the normie that killed her uncle was too much to bear. She dropped to her knees and, unbeknownst to her, had purple cracks of energy form over her body as she was about to bring a new phantom into the world.

Wizard had just dispatched the ghouls Stympalian sicked on him and saw Toralei start falling into despair. He returned the Wizard swordgun to gun mode, put a new ring on his left hand, pulled back a small lever on his gun that turned out to be the thumb of a hand like the one on his belt that just unclenched and used his left hand to shake it.

 **Copy, please.**

A second gun appeared in Wizard's left hand and he began running towards Toralei. On the way, he shot both guns at the group of ghouls Rio and Beast were fighting, then squeezed off a few rounds from both guns at Stympalian. When near the bird phantom, Wizard jumped into the air and kicked him, making him release his grip on Komodoyoko's throat and sending him back several feet. Wizard knelt down, put one his rings on Toralei's hand and put her hand next to his buckle.

 **Engage, please.**

Wizard jumped and disappeared into Toralei, going into her soul to battle the phantom trying to make its way out.

Wizard reverted to his default Flame Style as he descended into Toralei's underworld. He stopped falling after a few seconds and landed next to his motorcycle. He had arrived outside a large building that he didn't know was Monster High with many monsters walking around outside it. They all stopped walking as a loud roar came Wizard's right. Wizard looked to where it came from and saw a large wolf that was over twenty feet tall. This was the Fenrir phantom. It tackled the building and made a crack of purple energy appear.

Wizard briefly appreciated the irony of how a cat girl was close to giving birth to a wolf phantom while he put a new ring on his left hand and scanned it on his buckle.

 **Dragonrise, please.**

A large, western-styled dragon came out of the ground behind Wizard while he got on his bike. WizarDragon flew in front of Wizard on his bike. Wizard leapt into the air on his motorcycle as everything except the seat and handlebars split horizontally. He landed on WizarDragon's back as the sections of his motorcycle covered the inner-most edge of WizarDragon's wings and he rode WizarDragon towards Fenrir.

Wizard hit Fenrir with a flying charge that sent Fenrir flying back aways while WizarDragon flew up. Fenrir jumped up to attack Dragon who stopped the wolf phantom by unleashing a stream of fire. With Fenrir burned and distracted, WizarDragon threw the wolf downward where it hit the ground with a loud thud. Wizard decided it was time to end this so he put a new ring on his left hand and scanned it.

 **Special. Kick strike, Fabulous.**

Wizard jumped up while WizarDragon tucked in its arms, legs and head and became a giant, clawed foot. Wizard fell towards the top of the foot, kicked it and they were both covered in flames heading towards Fenrir. The flaming dragon's foot hit the wolf phantom, destroying it in a large explosion.

While this was going on, Stympalian was wondering what to do now that Wizard was gone and Toralei was hopefully about to die, Beast charged from his right and struck him with his sword. Thanks to Wizard's shots, he and Rio and finished off the ghouls, with Beast absorbing their mana.

"Now that the appetizers are done, it's time for the main dish," Beast said enthusiastically as he tried to strike Stymphalian again, but the bird thing flew backwards and upwards to avoid the blow.

 _I'm ready for you this time, you bastard_ , Kosuke thought to himself as he put a new ring on his right and inserted and it into his belt's slot.

 **Go Ch-ch-ch-chameleo**

A green magic circle appeared to Beast's right and went over his arm, materializing a green mantle of a chameleon's head (with a short tongue sticking out) and a short green cape over his right shoulder.

Sytmphalian made a dive at Beast, but he used the power of the Chameleo mantle to turn invisible and avoid the attack. After Sytmphalian passed him, Beast turned visible, stretched out the tongue of the mantle to wrap around Stymphalian's foot and gave it a hard tug that made Stymphalian drop to the ground. Beast then put a new ring on his right and inserted and it into his belt's slot.

 **Go Bu-bu-bu-buffa**

An orange magic circle appeared next to Beast and replaced the Chameleo mantle with one of an orange bull with a short, orange cape. He ran at Stymphalian just as the bird phantom got back on his feet and shoulder-charged him with the horns of his mantle. Beast followed through by swinging his sword at Stymphalian's left wing, the increased strength of his mantle causing great damage to the appendage. Beast then struck the right wing in the same way.

Stymphalian knew he could no longer fly, but he was far from defeated. He pecked at Beast's helmet with his hard beak, catching the ancient wizard off-guard and slashed at him three times with his claws. Stymphalian then brought his wings over himself and flapped them open, unleashing a barrage of razor feather that hit Beast, causing immense spark damage and making him fall to the ground.

Stymphalian was about to kick Beast when we was down but was interrupted by Rio sneaking up behind him and stabbing him in the head. This would have killed most living things but it to Stymphalian, it more like being hit with a small rock. Rio was able to work in another head stab while Stymphalian turned around and backhanded him to the ground. While he was dealing with Rio, Beast had gotten back on his feet and struck him twice with his sword followed by a shoulder charge with the horns on his mantle, making Stymphalian stumble back a few steps. Beast then rolled a wheel that was inside his sword and stuck his ring into a slot, making the wheel stop on one of its dice-like faces.

 **Five**

Beast swung his sword and five bulls made of orange energy charged at Stymphalian. The bird phantom exploded and left behind a yellow magic circle that was drawn towards Beast's belt and absorbed.

"Thanks for the help," Beast said to Rio.

"Thank you for killing that thing for what it wanted to do to my wife and step-daughter," Rio said. He reached his hand and Beast shook it.

Wizard shot out of Toralei's body and the purple energy cracks disappeared from her. Toralei got back on her feet and then ran over to Komodoyoko, who was also getting back on her feet.

"Are you okay mom?" Toralei asked franticlly.

"Mostly," Komodoyoko said with a raspy voice. Toralei was so ecstatic to see that her mom was fine and would (hopefully) recover from her near-strangulation that she gave her a big hug. Rio walked up to his family and joined in as well.

…..

Several days later, Toralei and her parents met up with Haruto again near the border between the monster and normie sides of Tokyo, Haruto once again covered in gloves and a motorcycle helmet to conceal himself. Their flight back to America was leaving in a few hours and they wanted to thank Haruto in person one last time. Toralei decided to express her gratitude by hugging him.

"Thank you so much for everything," Toralei said and then ended the hug. "If it wasn't for you, mom would be dead, I'd have had my soul eaten or whatever so another one of those evil things could come into the world and dad….. well, I'm not what would happened to him, but he wouldn't have liked seeing both of us killed."

"No, I wouldn't have," Rio said as he reached out and shook Haruto's hand. Komodoyoko did the same and they both thanked him for all he'd done, including destroying the last traces of the man who'd killed Toralei's uncle over twenty years ago.

"Tell that Kousoke guy how grateful we are to him too," Toralei said.

"Of course," Haruto said. They talked for a bit more and then went their separate ways.


End file.
